Mercy

GOD OF THE PUBLICAN,

Be merciful to me a sinner;
      this I am by nature and practice,
    this thy Word proclaims me to be,
    this I hope I feel myself to be;
Yet thou hast not left me to despair,
  for there is no ‘peradventure’ in thy grace;
I have all the assurance I need
  that with thee is plenteous redemption.


In spite of the number and heinousness of my sins
  thou hast given me a token for good;
The golden sceptre is held out,
  and thou hast said ‘Touch it and live’.
May I encourage myself by a sense of thy
    all-sufficiency,
  by faith in thy promises,
  by views of the experience of others.
To that dear refuge in which so many have sheltered
    from every storm
  may I repair,
In that fountain always freely open for sin
  may I be cleansed from every defilement.
Sin is that abominable thing which thy soul hates,
  and this alone separates thee and me.
Thou canst not contradict the essential perfections
  of thy nature;
Thou canst not make me happy with thyself,
  till thou hast made me holy like thyself.


O holy God, make me such a creature as thou canst
    take pleasure in,
  and such a being that I can take pleasure in thee.
May I consent to and delight in thy law
    after the inner man,
  never complain over the strictness of thy demands,
    but mourn over my want of conformity to them;
  never question thy commandments,
    but esteem them to be right.
By thy Spirit within me
  may my practice spring from principle, and
  my dispositions be conformable with duty.

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